Trans-Cab and Geolah receive full ride-hailing licences
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With the addition of Trans-Cab and Geolah, there are now seven full licensed ride-hailing service operators in Singapore.
ST PHOTOS: KELVIN CHNG, LIM YAOHUI
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- Trans-Cab and Geolah received full ride-hailing licences from the LTA, joining CDG Zig, Grab, Ryde, Tada and Gojek.
- The full licences, valid until December 31, 2027, were granted after both companies met LTA's safety and service standards.
- Trans-Cab met all standards, while Geolah and Ryde didn't meet the First Inspection Passing Rate, but still secured full licences.
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SINGAPORE – Trans-Cab and Geolah have been given full ride-hail service operator licences, days before the expiry of their one-year provisional permits at the end of 2025.
The two operators join CDG Zig, Grab, Ryde, Tada and Gojek in having full ride-hailing licences. These permits are valid until Dec 31, 2027.
Trans-Cab has the third-largest taxi fleet in Singapore with 1,948 vehicles, while Geolah is a technology company that offers limousine bookings and parcel delivery via an app.
The one-year provisional permit
It was for the operators to improve their operational capabilities, so they could meet the regulatory standards for safety and service provision to be considered for the full three-year licence, which will include the one-year provisional permit
In its announcement on Dec 22, LTA said: “Over the past year, the two operators
Operators with 800 or more bookable vehicles on their platforms need to have a valid licence under LTA’s regulatory framework governing Singapore’s point-to-point transport sector.
LTA publishes a quality-of-service report on the ride-hailing service operators that captures three performance indicators – accident rate, offence rate and first-inspection passing rate.
Based on the September report, which has the latest available data, both Trans-Cab and Geolah have met the required accident rate and offence rate standards.
To meet accident rate requirements, the private-hire cars on the platform cannot have more than one accident in the first 100,000 trips. Subsequently, the cars cannot have more than 0.5 accident per 100,000 trips.
As for the offence rate, clocking more than six demerit points in the first 100,000 trips will lead to a fail. For subsequent trips, the limit is three demerit points per 100,000 trips.
Trans-Cab also achieved the standard for first-inspection passing rate. Geolah did not.
The standard requires that at least 90 per cent of applicable vehicles on a ride-hailing platform pass their periodic inspection on the first attempt.
Ryde is the only other operator that did not achieve the passing mark in this area.
As at Sept 30, there were 61,856 private-hire cars that can be used to provide ride-hailing services.
Before Trans-Cab and Geolah, Ryde in 2021 was the last ride-hailing operator to receive the full licence.
A spokesperson for Geolah told The Straits Times that the platform has about 5,200 approved private-hire car drivers, and 40,000 bookings were initiated during the provisional licence period.
Following the award of the full ride-hailing service licence, Geolah’s spokesperson said that the platform will be running promotions like discounts for passengers, and not take commissions from drivers from Feb 1 to Dec 31, 2026.
Ms Jasmine Tan, general manager of Trans-Cab, said the platform now has a mix of taxis and private-hire vehicles, including 2,200 taxi drivers and 300 private-hire car drivers, since it went live and was opened to their hirers in July.
While only hirers of Trans-Cab taxis and private-hire cars are on the platform currently, the company will open this to other drivers later on.
Ms Tan added that the fleet size will be increased in line with regulatory requirement, demand and operational readiness.
She also said that Trans-Cab has improved the system’s reliability and strengthened driver support features to enhance the experience for drivers and passengers since the update in November, when ST reported
While she declined to give exact ride figures, she said there has been steady growth.
Transport economist Walter Theseira does not expect the two operators getting their full ride-hailing licences to have a significant impact on the supply of ride-hailing service drivers and fares for passengers.
This is because the industry has passed the stage when operators can pour in generous incentives to entice new drivers to join the trade or subsidise fares for passengers, said the associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
However, he noted that Trans-Cab’s ride-hailing platform has a better chance of gaining a foothold in the sector than previous entrants because it already has a large pool of drivers in its fleet.
He added that taxi drivers are known to be a more reliable source of supply for ride-hailing services because they tend to be on the road more.
This, in turn, means that the Trans-Cab app would be better able to match passengers to rides.
